The Indian Premier League’s (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings (PBKS) has been in the headlines since early this week for a change in captaincy yet again. The issue broke out on the internet speculated by several news portals on their website.
According to reports, the Mayank Agarwal-led PBKS were going to appoint the English wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow as their new skipper after a disappointing last season. The franchise finished sixth on the points table in the fifteenth edition of the IPL under Agarwal’s leadership.
PBKS captain, Agarwal had a season to forget with the bat as the Bengaluru-based batter managed to score mere 196 runs in 12 innings at a lowly strike rate of 122.5. The 31-year-old was also not able to fix a place for himself in the batting line-up.
The franchise broke silence on the speculations on their social media handle and said, “News reports published by a certain sports News website pertaining to captaincy of the Punjab Kings franchise has been making the rounds in the last few days. We would like to state that no official of the team has issued any statement on the same”.
India’s sidelined Test opener was handed the captaincy of the side after his childhood friend KL Rahul, the ex-captain of the side, joined the debutants Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as their skipper.
The star Indian batter is currently playing the Maharaja KSCA T20 league for his home side Bengaluru Blasters. Agarwal looks in great touch and has already scored 480 runs in a total of 11 innings at a monstrous strike rate of 167.27 and a healthy average of 53.33. Agarwal has scored two tons in the season so far.
PBKS have a history of juggling with the captaincy role. The franchise is known to be a little impatient with their core group on not getting the desired results. Formerly known as Kings XI Punjab, the franchise has had a total number of 13 captains in 15 seasons of IPL. The side holds the record for having the most number of captains in the tournament’s history.
The Punjab-based side is amongst the few teams who are yet to lift the title. The team would be looking for better results in the upcoming season.
